“God Help Us if [Ted Cruz] Gets to be Anything More Than the Senator From Texas”

So asserted former Vermont Governor and failed presidential candidate Howard Dean. Unfortunately for him, it sure looks like Cruz is all systems go in 2016 so it’s not impossible that Dr. Dean’s worst political nightmare could (ahem) someday come true. Via Mediaite:

Why does Ted Cruz frighten liberals so much? Is it because he’s too “extreme.” Or is it because he’s talented and impervious to the oft-applied “stupid” charge routinely thrown at conservatives? This, after all, would make him dangerous, wouldn’t it? No doubt Dean finds Cruz contemptible and on the fringe. But maybe what scares him most about Ted Cruz occupying the Oval Office is that he could, well, actually win it, and thus if he did, would seek to radically change Washington by (gasp!) reining in federal spending, balancing the budget, returning power to state and local governments, and restoring civil liberties. I shudder at the very thought. Don’t you?

Liberals, for their part, reflexively turn blue in the face when they think about someone like Ted Cruz running the country. “God help us if he gets to be anything more than the Senator from Texas,” Dean intones on national television -- apparently without the slightest hint of irony. No matter that the current president’s own reputation for lawlessness isn’t just destructive; it’s probably unprecedented. And yet I’m sure this disturbing trend is perfectly acceptable -- or at least tolerable -- to Dean and his band of supporters. Why? Because President Obama is a Democrat.